A gas station manager accused of scratching lottery tickets to find winners for himself has entered a plea to a lesser charges.

Devinder Ghotra, 42, of Battle Creek, pleaded guilty Tuesday to larceny under $200 and was fined $775 by Calhoun County District Court Judge Samuel Durham.

Ghotra had been charged with the felony of forging or counterfeiting a lottery ticket and if convicted faced up to five years in prison. He entered his plea to the misdemeanor, with a maximum sentence of 93 days in jail and a $500 fine, on the day he was scheduled for a preliminary examination.

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Ghotra was charged with the forgery after an investigation by the Michigan Lottery Commission and the Battle Creek police department, alleging he had scraped tiny sections of instant game tickets, trying to determine if they were winners.

Officials alleged that Ghotra or an associate then purchased the winning tickets and sold losers to customers.

Lottery officials were first alerted on March 10 by a customer who purchased tickets at Capital One Gas at 328 Capital Ave. S.W. and noticed suspicious scratch marks on tickets for the Four-Million Megabucks Instant Tickets.

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An investigator for the lottery commission inspected the store tickets a few days later and then contacted Battle Creek police on March 30 about the alleged alterations.

According to police, Ghorta said he used his fingernails and scratched about 30 tickets for a month because he was bored. He said of those he scratched he sold between 25 and 30 to customers.

Ghorta didn’t have anything to say before sentencing but his attorney, J. Thomas Schaeffer did. “He has support of his family and he is remorseful for what happened,” Schaeffer said. “He has expressed his regrets through the police reports, and you won’t see him again on this.”

Ghorta is the nephew of the station owner, Harpal Singh. Lottery officials told the Detroit Free Press for a story in November on retailers who cheat customers that the lottery commission revoked the station’s license after Ghorta was not fired.

At the hearing, Durham told Ghorta, “The integrity of the state lottery is very important to all of us. We have to be certain that when you check off those things or are dealing with the lottery you are getting an accurate document as well as one that is not forged or altered.

“If you play the lottery they want to make sure everyone has a fair and even chance. You got in a situation where you kind of limited those odds.”

Contact Trace Christenson at 269-966-0685 or tchrist@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson